Up With the Birds
Boobies, noddies, tropic-birds, parakeets and many other bird species unknown on the New Zealand mainland are now the only residents on treeless Macauley Island in the Kermadec Group. It wasn’t always the case in this little bit of the tropics belonging to New Zealand. The film moves through a day with the various nesting colonies and concludes that Macauley Island, which itself is emerging from a period of severe environmental stress, should now be left to the birds.
Part of the philosophy of Wild South is to extend New Zealanders notion of this country and region.
New Zealand’s territory extends up into the tropics and down to the subantarctic, and her biogeographical region includes island s like New Hebrides, New Caledonia and parts of Australia.
The Natural History Unit travelled to the Kermadec Island group with the Wildlife Service of the Department of Internal Affairs for a 10 day census of birdlife.
The Kermadecs are situated half way between NZ and Tonga and the birds there are all tropical types and quite unknown on the New Zealand mainland.
Boobies, noddies, tropic birds and parakeets breed on this treeless island and the film moves through a day with the various nesting colonies and concludes that this island, which itself has come through a period of severe environmental stress, is New Zealand’s little bit of the tropics and should now be left to the birds.
